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Where does this monster from Panasonic fit on our list? Read on to find out!
If you're a serious home entertainment system enthusiast, you know that a top-notch television is important if you want to get the most out of your home theater. But with all the choices that are on the market, how do you know which is right for you?
Screen size played a large part in our selection -- bigger is better, right? But one potential problem with large screen televisions is resolution. Resolution refers to the number of pixels that can appear on screen at one time -- the more pixels, the smoother the picture. In addition, some HDTVs use interlacing while others use progressive scan to display images. Learn more about resolution in our article on How HDTV Works.
Contrast ratios also played a large part in our decision-making process. The contrast ratio is the difference between the brightest and darkest colors the television can display. You want this value to be high -- it means the television can display a greater range of colors. So a television with a 2,000:1 contrast ratio isn't as good a pick as one with a 6,000:1 ratio.
We also looked at refresh rates -- the number of times the television reconstructs the image on the screen each second. A television with a low refresh rate will have problems displaying fast-moving images. We measure refresh rates in hertz. Most HDTV sets have a refresh rate of 60 hertz, but some have higher rates.
Let's jump right into it and look at these terrific TVs.
